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In total, the municipality had until last week only seven cases of coronary disease. On October 3, a new case of infection was discovered, a man in his 70s.
Since then, testing and screening for infections have been conducted, and today the total number has more than doubled, to nineteen cases.
Tracking the infection shows that an event in the village courtyard on Monday, September 28, may be a source of spread of the infection.
An event in Rakkestad bygdetun under the auspices of the Rakkestad Gammeltekniske association is focused on tracking infections.
Photo: Visit Østfold
An event on October 3, in which people gathered to plow the fields, is also in the spotlight for infection tracking.
– This is serious for Rakkestad and I am very concerned, says Mayor Karoline Fjeldstad. She is the leader of crisis management in Rakkestad municipality.
It was Rakkestad Avis who first mentioned the outbreak. For the newspaper, the mayor describes the outbreak as uncontrolled.
None of those infected should be seriously ill, but many have symptoms. The municipality has lists of everyone who has been present.
So far, some 70 people have tested for Covid-19 after the outbreak.
– Now we have 12 confirmed infected and mainly they are 60 years old or more. Not everyone has been to this event in Bygdetunet, some have been close contacts and got infected afterwards, says Fjeldstad.
The municipality is now working hard to track down the infection and five people are sitting down and calling all known close contacts of those infected.
Close nursing homes for visits
Both the Skautun nursing home and the nursing homes in relation to Skautun will be closed immediately to visitors on Tuesday afternoon and indefinitely due to the local outbreak in Rakkestad.
An event where several people were present to plow the fields together may also be a source of the outbreak in Rakkestad.
Photo: private
Events at the Family Center and the house of culture have also been canceled, reports the municipal management on its website. He also says that more measures can be implemented after the crisis management meeting on Wednesday morning.
The municipality encourages everyone to limit social activity, meetings, and events.
– The leaders of both football and handball have stopped their activities. Now it’s about making sure we all manage to assimilate that we have an infection in Rakkestad that we want to eliminate as soon as possible, says Karoline Fjeldstad.
Rakkestad is a neighboring municipality to Indre Østfold, where there was a major outbreak in August. One of the infected now resides in Indre Østfold, the rest in Rakkestad.
